ARCHAEOLOGY & SALT
Temples - Alters and hydraulics/Sewage - Salterns - Ports - Stores - The Fenlands - The Dark Ages

__________________________________________________

[SALT] PORTS - OSTIA

"Ancius Marcus rex .....salinas primus instituit"

After driving the Veietines from the salt-beds on the north bank of the Tiber, Ancus Marcus took control of the Tiber estuary, and the coastal plain. The Salinae Romanae were almost certainly the reason for Ostia's foundation, probably before 400 BC. Indeed, Rome may not have developed without Ostia's salt beds, and following her war with the Etruscans, her prime mission was to defend the shores of Latium.

This was accomplished by the establishment of the maritime colonies, of Antium, Anxur, Minturnae, Sinuessa, and Pyrgi. So important were the saltbeds to Rome. Only later did these maritime colonies pave the way to Roman sea power.

With the increasingly apparent inundation of the saltbeds and the port, new sites were developed, to handle the increasing quantities of salt, and other commodities required by an expanding Rome population

ROMAN [SALT] PORTS
RAVENNA - AQUILEA - CLASSIS - OSTIA - EPHESUS - LEPTIS MAGNA -




Leptis Magna , a polygonal port in Noth Africa, was built at the time of Trajan: it is now landlocked . [similar to the 'Portus' at Roman Ostia, ] and Like Mount Cassius, on the Sinai coast, and Ephesus in Turkey - these ports suffered from the erratic sea level changes.

 Ostia portus air photo

The port of Trajan, hexagonal and well preserved is now high enough above the surrounding fields to serve as a 'gravity' feed tank or reservoir, for fresh water, which is lifted from the Little Tiber [some 3 metres]. The area north of the port is now the Rome airfield of Fiumicino.Now it lies nearly 2m. above present day levels and is used to irrigate the surrounding farmland from water pumped into it.

THE ROMANO-BRITISH FENLANDS

The period of Roman occupation which opened up the Fens, began around 80 AD. possibly as a direct result of the difficulties back at home. The population, described as having 'rocketed' in growth by mid 2nd century, was working as many farms as there are existing today.

By the time time the Romans left in 450 AD. the sea, had risen , causing flooding even here , but earlier in 50 AD. -the huge Wash embayment, much larger than today, had allowed reducing the inland waterlogging, making it possible to reclaim more ground for settlement around the edges of the Fen and on the 'islands' .. It seems likely that this newly deposited territory was Crown land leased out under a procurator to Romano- British groups of smallholders working mixed farming and industrial settlements and that many of these sites were making salt. Successful live-stock raising would have been important for leather equipment such as shields, tents and harness for some of the 2,000 horses that Julius Caesar brought with him, and a salt industry was needed for tanning the hides and to preserve meat . The fishing fraternity too, required salt to preserve the catch, and used brine for garum, the fish sauce so popular with the Romans. It is also probable that salt production was taxed as it was in other Roman colonies. There is no doubt that saltmaking was an important activity at this time; but successful occupation of such low lying country depended upon constant attention to maintenance: The Romans tried to improve communications and transport by cutting artificial waterways to link rivers and building sea defences. Rising sealevels and extensive, shallow inland flooding during the 4th century AD forced many people to move away and even though there was resettlement later, little was done for drainage or essential maintenance to keep the canals open or repair the sea defences on the siltlands after the Romans left.

INUNDATION - THE DARK AGES - PHASE 1

Coastal flooding and the continuing rise of the sea level which peaked around 400 AD would have been a contributory factor to diminishing production and the almost complete disappearance of the coastal salt traffic.

It may well be possible to correlate, the desertion of the French and British coasts, which lost their salt trading capability,.. and the causes for the the western part of the continent, becoming an under developed area. Migration seems to have been towards the warmer regions and there were probably many reasons for this movement, but it may be no coincidence that the direction it took was to areas where salt was readily available, albeit, in salt mines and outcrops, requiring additional effort for its recovery . This would seem to justify the apparently senseless determination of the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus to conquer desert strong holds like Masada on the Dead Sea.

close-up 'white' salt boat on the Dead Sea - MADABA MAP           The MABABA map - Two boats loaded with Salt - One with Red salt from evaporation pans - the second with White [grey] rock Salt from Mt. Sdom
MABABA map - Two boats loaded with Salt - One with Red salt from evaporation pans - the second with White [grey] rock Salt from Mt. Sdom " Both boats are shown plying their loads from the south end of the Dead Sea towards the North shore and up to Jerusalem.Kind permission of: Franciscan Archaeological Institute - Jordan

Mount Sdom on the western shore of the south end of the Dead Sea was one of the few sources of rock salt available - It became a critical source when salt making on the oceans' shores became impossible due to inundation of the salt pans.



The Dead Sea itself gives another indication of the very wet climate of that period: it suddenly rose to reach 72 metres above the present level between 70 BC and 40 BC and . The Qumran, Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves near this high watermark possibly to protect them, rather than to hide them.

One fact seems reasonably certain: around 500 BC. at the height of the ancient Greek and Phoenician civilizations, the ocean level was betweeen one and two metres lower than it is today. From then on, for nearly 800 years - from 600 BC. to 100 AD - the ocean level remained low enough and the climate sufficiently genial enough, to allow some coastal saltmaking, though floods in Rome and silting, [indicating a higher sea level], up at the mouth of the Tiber, soon became a problem in the 1st century AD. - The rising sealevel and flooding became severe enough to force the port of Ostia, a Roman naval base in the 3rd and 4th centuries, as well as the saltpans nearby, to be moved inland. The Emperor Claudius rebuilt a harbour near the present day Fumicino airport, but in 62 AD [Tacitus], after 200 ships had been destroyed there , Trajan sited his port still further up the Tiber as a six-sided basin: by 400 AD it was also unusable

Lepcis Magna, the polygonal port in North Africa was also built at the time of Trajan, and is today similarly landlocked. Mount Cassius on the Sinai coast, and Ephesus in Turkey would also seem to have similar characteristics of suffering from difficulties at a time of eustatic sea level changes.

The port of Classis near Ravenna was capable of harbouring 100 ships shortly after Augustus, and became a major port . Other coastal towns like Ravenna and Aquilea, previously deep inland, turned into ports and were among the few ports situated near saltworks to survive in Italy, only to later become landlocked again, for the coming centuries, high and dry and about 10 km from the coast.

INUNDATION - THE DARK AGES - PHASE 2

A little before 1300 AD, the sea returned to its previous [high] level, again flooding the Dutch, French, and English Peat areas closing them down. During the previous five centuries, millions of tons of peat had been removed providing the saltmakers fuel for their boiling processes. They left behind huge cavities which became known as the Dutch 'meers', the French 'clairs' and the English 'broads'.

However during this period of coastal flooding , fortunately , a rennaissance of inland salt mining technology and new brining methods compensated for loss of production, and rock sources in England, Burgundy, Germany , Poland, and Austria, and this time allowed normal life to go on, allbeit causing political salt monopolies and requiring maintainence of forestry for fuelling the new furnaces. By the 16th century, the old Chinese method of drilling and brining came into use in Cheshire, England and Germany, using coal for boiling. It was this method which finally allowed salt production to become the inexpensive, widely distributed, commodity that it is today.

CAESARIA Herod's salt export outlet, was one of the most elegant and richest in the east Mediterranean - The Romans bought their salt from Herod, and only after Herod's death did they have to force their needs from an ununited [Jewish] population.

ROMARCH discussion - The port of Rome - Ostia was moved inland because of a rising Mediterranean sealevel Ostia, was first and foremost, , Rome's salt producing 'officiana' [probably before it became Rome's port] and the sait beds [pans], too, soon became flooded. - forcing Rome to look elswhere for salt.

    Construction continuing...


MRBLOCH ARCHIVE, is researching the significance, of SALT [NaCl] through the period 1000 BC . up to the Industrial Revolution.

For detailed references of statements made here, or Bibliography- Please mail:

David Bloch - mblsalt@ibm.net.

MRBLOCH SALT ARCHIVE

salt & ECONOMICS] salt & [ PHYSIOLOGY ] salt & [ GEOLOGY] salt & [ RELIGION ] salt & [ PALAEOCLIMATEOLOGY] salt & [ PALAEGEOGRAPHY] salt & [ ARCHAEOLOGY] salt & [ PRODUCTION] salt & [ MONOMANIA ] salt & [ HOME PAGE - SALT made the world go round

________________________________________________________

© 1996 MRBLOCH ARCHIVE - all rights reservedmblsalt@ibm.net

Quotations from these pages are authorized provided they mention the author's name David Blochand this URL - http://www.mbl.co.il/salt.htmand source of quotation (including date of last update). Copies of these pages mustnot alter the text and must leave this copyright mention visible in full.

MBL We thank GeoCities Athens